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Unpacking the Gospel
Our Need for the Cross
Bruce A. Hess
Well, if you would, please take out your Bibles and turn in them to the book of 1 Corinthians, in the New Testament, and chapter number 15. 1 Corinthians, chapter number 15.
This morning we are going to be launching a new four-part series that we have entitled Unpacking the Gospel. I want you to know, I am very excited about this. I consider this a high privilege that I can bring this truth to us this week and the next three Sundays. I have been planning this and praying about this for several months, and I want you to know that as we open up this series on Unpacking the Gospel, I have Two Primary Motivations for doing it.
The first Primary Motivation is to clarify the most important truth in the universe. THE most important truth in the universe. You see, men and women, there are people in our neighborhoods; there are people in our city; there are people in our state; there are people in our world, who have yet to hear of the truth of the Gospel. And my deep desire—and the deep desire of our church—is that people would no longer be unaware of the Gospel. Rather that they would be fully aware of the Good News of the Gospel.
As we are going to be seeking to clarify this most important truth, there are others who have heard of the Gospel, they are aware of the term—maybe they heard it mentioned in a church setting, maybe they heard it in a conversation that they overheard—but they are unsure of what the gospel is. They would struggle to define it. To some it is unclear why the Gospel is necessary, why it is pivotal, what exactly does it mean, and they are unclear on how to embrace it. We hope to clarify a lot of that during our time together in the next few Sundays. There is plenty of confusion out there related to the nature of the Gospel. So, my Primary Motivation, number one, is to clarify the most important truth in the universe.
The second Primary Motivation I have is to challenge those who have embraced the Gospel, like many of us have done. I have noticed in my own life and in the lives of others, too often, when one embraces the Gospel and they become a follower of Jesus, somehow the Gospel is relegated to our spiritual past. It truly is a significant part of our spiritual past, but too often we just relegate the gospel to our spiritual past.
Some of us are thinking, yeah, okay, we’re going to talk about the Gospel. I embraced the Gospel two years ago; I embraced the Gospel five years ago; I embraced the Gospel 10 years ago. But it is not really vital on an everyday level when it comes to following Jesus. That is what happens with many of us. So, I want to challenge those who have embraced the Gospel, because I believe it is important to embrace the Gospel message in a fresh way on a daily basis.
I want to illustrate this by telling you a story that goes back a number of years ago. We have a thing called Starting Point, which is really an orientation to Wildwood Community Church, and years ago I was teaching Starting Point and I was teaching the session where we walked through the Gospel message. Among the ones who were attending that day was one particular individual who was filling a leadership role at Wildwood Community Church. So, as I was going through that session on really unpacking the Gospel, I said something like this: “Wildwood’s spiritual superstructure is found in the Gospel message; it is found in the person of Jesus Christ; it is found in the salvation that He has provided.” Then, in that session, I began to walk through the truths of the Gospel. We looked at the need for the Gospel, we looked at God’s work, the solution to our need, we looked at our responsibility, how we are to embrace the Gospel by faith.
When the whole session was over, I checked in with this individual who had a leadership role at the church at the time and I said, “Hey friend, what did you think about the session?” I was anticipating a response that would go something like this: “Man, am I glad that Wildwood takes the time to go through all of that in such incredible detail.” That is the response I was expecting. Here is the response I got: “It was okay. It was alright. I’ve known all of that for years.” The implication seemed to be: they were struggling during that session to stay awake as it was just so boring. I’ll be honest with you, I was completely stunned. I mean, I was truly stunned. It’s not very often I don’t know what to say, but I was astonished! I was thinking, really? That is your response?
Later on I was thinking, Oh, I missed a key opportunity, a key opportunity to share a principle I think we all need to know. And that is: every time we hear the Gospel delineated is a fresh opportunity to worship God. In fact, it is part of the very design of the Gospel, that every time we hear it delineated it is a fresh opportunity to worship God.
So, as we are going to spend time this Sunday and the next three Sundays, Lord willing, in this four-part series, I would say to you, don’t miss the opportunity! Don’t miss the opportunity that God is going to give to you and to me.
I have put together some thoughts, and here are the thoughts: Regular Gratitude for the deep grace of the Gospel is designed to do three things in our spiritual lives. It is what Catalyzes a daily attitude of worship. Regular Gratitude for the deep grace of the gospel is what Energizes our drive to serve God. Regular Gratitude for the deep grace of the gospel is what Stimulates our desire to share the gospel with others. Did you know that? That is why it is so important we keep it in the forefront of our thinking–it is to Catalyze a daily attitude of worship, to Energize our drive to serve God. It is to Stimuate our desire to share the Gospel with others. See, if we begin to lag in any of these areas, do you know what the problem is? We’ve got to go back to the Gospel.
What we are saying is, allow these messages to catalyze, to energize, and to stimulate your heart during our time in this four-part series. I’m going to be honest with you—it is true for me and I think it is true for all of us who have chosen to follow the Lord Jesus—there is a danger always looming and that danger is, that we would become a little bit indifferent, that we would become a little bit forgetful, that we would become a little bit complacent towards the most significant truth in all of the universe, which is the truth of the Gospel.
Now, that is just the introduction, that is just the introduction. As we begin to Unpack the Gospel, I want you to notice on our title slide that there is a cross there, a picture of the cross. At the core of the Gospel is the cross of Christ. We want to remind ourselves about that, not only this week, but in the weeks to come.
What I want to do as we begin is I want to look at three passages of Scripture. The first passage comes from 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. If you are there, or you can just check out what we have on the screen. This is what Paul writes, to believers, he says,
“Now I would remind you brothers, (of what?) the gospel which I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand. For I delivered to you as of first importance, what I also received (what was that?): that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”
What a great passage of Scripture! He says there, “This was of first importance.” It is a very good translation of his original words. Some of the other versions of the Bible say, “I delivered to you, preached to you, what was most important of all, what was of foremost importance.” And that was the cross. At the core of the Gospel is the cross of Christ.
Earlier in the book, in chapter 2, verse 2, he said to them this regarding his coming to them, he said, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” Now, it is important to understand, being a previous Pharisee and a highly accomplished Pharisee, no doubt Paul had memorized the entire Old Testament. If you know anything about Paul, you know that he taught on many, many, many, biblical subjects, many biblical subjects. But he said, “I resolved,” I made a conscious decision to keep my focus in one place, and the center of all of that was what? The cross! See, he was saying to them, this is not just something we need to be reminded of once, it is something we need to be reminded of constantly, consistently, over-and-over again.
Look at what he says to the Galatians in chapter 6, verse 14, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is saying, at the core of the Gospel is the cross of Christ.
Many of you have heard about Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Many people believe he is the greatest preacher there ever was. One time Spurgeon was asked this question, why do all your sermons have a similar sound to them? You know what his response was? Here is how he answered it, he said, “I take my text where I find it and then make a beeline for the cross.” That is really what we are going to be doing in this series, Unpacking the Gospel.
So, I want to give to you the series outline of the four messages we are going to be doing. This week we are going to be looking at Our Need for the Cross. Then we are going to look at God’s Work on the Cross. After that, we are going to look at Choosing to Embrace the Cross, and then number four, we are going to look at Celebrating the Cross. That is the plan, that is where we are going. Do you think it is a good trip to go on? Anybody? Alright!
I also want you to know as we go through these four messages, we are going to do something a little bit different. We are going to sing the same closing song every Sunday, the same one. It is a song that has a chorus that begins, How Wonderful, How Marvelous. So, as we walk through Unpacking the Gospel, the prayer that I have for myself, and for each one of us, is that our souls will be stirred in an increasingly deep way as we go through each of these four messages. We pray that as we sing the same closing song every week, that we can do it with a little bit more fervor, a little bit more energy as we look at Unpacking the Gospel.
The first thing we are going to do, as we said, is we are going to look at Our Need for the Cross. What is our need for the cross? Well, there are two key truths I think we need to understand when it comes to our need for the cross. The first one is, that Life Has a Secret. Life Has a Secret and a lot of times no one has shared that secret with us. What is the secret? The secret could be stated this way: God has designed every human being with a built-in need to have a relationship with Him.
It is the truth. God has designed every human being with a built-in need to have a relationship with Him. Each one of us was personally shaped by God. In fact, King David put it this way as he was speaking to God, he said, “You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). We were all created by God.
Someone worded it like this: we were born with a God-shaped vacuum in our hearts. See, that is the secret about life most people don’t know. We were born with a God-shaped vacuum in our hearts. What happens to us as human beings is we have this tendency to attempt to fill this God-shaped vacuum many different ways. Sometimes what people tend to do is, they tend to fill that God-shaped vacuum with acquiring wealth or acquiring possessions, but you can’t fill that vacuum that way. Sometimes it is pursuing pleasure and fun and adventure, and they try to fill that God-shaped vacuum in that way, but you can’t fill it that way. Sometimes it is gaining degrees or prestige or power, and they attempt to fill that God-shaped vacuum that way, but you can’t fill it that way.
Now, when I put all those things up there, acquiring wealth, possessions, pursuing pleasure, fun, adventure, gaining degrees, prestige, power, I’m not saying that those things are evil. What I am saying is, you can’t find lasting satisfaction by pursuing substitutes for the God-shaped vacuum that God created us with. That kind of pursuit is likened by King Solomon to chasing after the wind (see Ecclesiastes 1:14,17; 2:11, 17,26; 4:4,6,16; 6:9). The next time it is windy, go outside and just think about: I’m going to chase the wind for a while. If you start heading to the south, you are going to keep going south and south and south, because you can never catch the wind. So, trying to fill the God-shaped vacuum with these kinds of things, you’ll never be able to do it, never be able to do it.
How many people have been to either Disneyland or Disneyworld? Let me see some hands out there. Alright. Quite a few of you have been there. If you had little ones with you, there was a particular ride that you went to, no doubt. And that ride is called ‘It’s a Small World.’ As you ride through that ride, ‘It’s a Small World,’ what they have is figures of children from various cultures and they are dressed in cultural dress, and as you go through the ride, while you are going through that ride, there is a song that is playing. It is called, It’s a Small World After All. Remember that song, if you’ve been there? [Bruce sings] “It’s a small world after all; it’s a small world after all; it’s a small world after all; it’s a small, small world!” Yeah! For hours afterward, you cannot shake that song from your mind!
You know, life is a little bit like that when we have a God-shaped vacuum. See, our life can be full, we can be busy with this and busy with that. And yet there are some things we can’t quite shake. Maybe there’s this gnawing emptiness on the inside we can’t shake. Is anybody really there? Does anybody really care? Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? We can have this deep sense on the inside that there is something missing from my life, there must be more than this in this world. There must something beyond this world. And, just like that song, you can’t shake it at all.
In fact, Solomon said this in Ecclesiastes 3:11, this is part of the answer to why we can’t shake it: “God has set eternity (that means planted eternity in the human heart)…God has set eternity in the human heart.” That is why we have this sense—even when we don’t know God—that there’s got to be something beyond this. Intuitively we just sort of know something is missing.
So, this first message is built around the idea of the Need for the Cross. And there’s two key truths. The first one is – that Life Has a Secret. The second key truth we need to understand, as we look at the need for the cross, is that We Have a Problem, we have a problem. We have, as human beings, an inherent tendency to rebel. We have this inherent tendency to seek to live our life our own way. This has been true for centuries and centuries and centuries and centuries. You go back multiple centuries, in Isaiah, chapter 53, verse 6 said this, “All of us, like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” How many are left out of ‘all of us?’ All of us means, in Hebrew [smile]: all of us. “Each of us, has turned to his own way.”
As the great American philosopher, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta has said. You know Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta…You know…you know Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. We all know her, right? Wait a minute, you probably know her by her other name…Lady Gaga. This is what she said, “We were born this way.” And, it’s true. We were born this way.
The core idea of selfishness is that we have this, ‘my own way syndrome.’ I like to be my own boss. I don’t like anybody telling me what to do, how to live my life. We have this tendency to live a life that is independent from God. I like to run my life my way.
Have you ever noticed that you do not have to teach toddlers how to be selfish? Anyone ever notice that? I had four kids, never had a session with them: “Alright come and sit down there, you listen to me, I need to teach you how to be selfish. I know you don’t know anything about it.” We didn’t have to do any of that, right? You don’t have to teach toddlers to be selfish because we are born that way, with ‘my own way syndrome,’ trying to do things my way.
God has a name for this self-rule. The technical term for the name that God has for it, is a little word in English called sin, s-i-n. Sin is expressed in how I choose to prioritize my life. It is expressed in the way that I treat other people. It is expressed in the way that I speak to other people. It is expressed in the way that I choose oftentimes to ignore God.
Sin has symptoms to it. One of the symptoms of sin is a sense of ‘missing-ness’ in my life. Something seems to be missing. One of the symptoms of sin would be feelings of loneliness and despair. One of the symptoms of sin is a lack of inner peace. Paul got very honest in Romans, chapter 3, verse 23, when he says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” How many people are included in ‘all?’ Well, all means all!
Then, in Isaiah, chapter 59, verse 2, a very honest appraisal, “Your sinful acts have alienated you from God.” That is the Need for the Cross.
When we, by our sinful acts, allow ourselves to be alienated from God, there are two Significant Complications to that. There is more information, you see. The first significant complication is Sin has a Severe Penalty, a very severe penalty. In fact, in Romans, chapter 6, and verse 23, it says, “The wages of sin (what we earn by sinning) is death.” We earn death by sinning, a slow death in this life and an eternal death in the next life. Sin has a Severe Penalty to it.
Look what it says in the book of the Revelation, chapter 20, verse 15, “If anyone’s name is not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.” Men and women, that is a severe penalty that as humans we face.
Two significant complications, first – Sin has a Severe Penalty. The second complication is: We Cannot Compensate for our Sin Problem. People try to do that. They try to compensate. There are a lot of common efforts that people give. Maybe they say, Well, you know what, I’m going to do my best to be good and hopefully that will be good enough. Or, What I’m going to do is—I’m going to be religious and that can compensate for my sin problem. Or, maybe, What I’m going to choose to do is, I’m going to help the disadvantaged, I’m going to help the poor and maybe I can earn some sort of compensation for my sin problem. Maybe I’ll just make sure I take the sacraments on a regular basis. Maybe I’m just going to live a life that is very sincere, I mean how can you go wrong when you are sincere?
We often try to compensate, but notice what it says in Romans, chapter 3, in verse 20. It says, “No one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what His law demands.” No one. His standard is perfection and our attempts to compensate for our sin problem are described in Scripture, Ephesians 2:12, as “without hope”, without hope.
The bad news continues from there. In Hebrews, chapter 9, verse 27, it says that people are destined to die once and after that to face judgment. Wow! That is heavy stuff, but that is Our Need for the Cross.
If you are ever in the book of Psalms, every once-in-a-while you will come across this word ‘Selah,’ S-e-l-a-h. It is a pause word. Psalms were songs and that word marked where you were to pause and take a deep breath and to reflect just a little. I just want us to collectively do that. Everything we’ve looked at, let’s just pause and take a deep breath. Wow! Our Need for the Cross…the best summary we can give it, bad news! Bad news!
With that, I’m ready to close our message today. Some of you are going: Oh boy, thanks for sharing, Bruce. I just love coming to church to hear bad news! So glad I got out of bed and I came to Wildwood today! Well, I want to remind you that as we’ve looked at this bad news, Our Need for the Cross today, we have just begun. This is just message number one in a series of four as we are going to spend some time Unpacking the Gospel.
I don’t know if you knew this or not, but the word, the term ‘gospel’ literally means, good news. So, as we are Unpacking the Gospel we are going to be literally unpacking the good news. We’ve just started. God has the solution to our need for the cross and that solution is found in the person of Jesus. That solution is found in Jesus’ work on the cross for you and me. That is why we have a rugged cross at the front of our Worship Center. That is why it is there. It is to remind us again of the good news of the Gospel.
See, all of this, when we are doing this, of Unpacking the Gospel, it is all part of a bigger story. It is actually a love story. It is the greatest love story that has ever been told. As it says in Luke, chapter 19 and verse 10, “The Son of Man (that is speaking of Jesus) came to this planet to seek and save the lost.” That is why He left Heaven to come here: to rescue you, to rescue me, out of the dilemma that we faced. This is truly Good News! We are going to unpack more of it.
You know, earlier we were in Isaiah, chapter 53, and verse 6, you remember that? When it says, “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way.” That’s just the first part of the verse. What is the next word that happens in the verse? But. “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the sins of us all (how many are left out of that? Nobody) “…to fall on Him.”
Many of you know the name of Tim Keller. Tim Keller was recently called to his heavenly home. And Tim Keller made this incredible statement and I really, really like it. It begins by saying this: “The gospel says that you are simultaneously more sinful and flawed than you ever dared to believe…” and that is true. The Gospel says that we are more sinful and flawed than you ever dared to believe. But, you notice there is a dot, dot, dot at the end of that quote. He goes on to say this, “The gospel says we are simultaneously more sinful and flawed than you ever dared to believe…yet more loved and accepted than you ever dared hope.”
Men and women, that is the Gospel message. That is what we are unpacking in these weeks. As I said, we are going to sing the same song at the close of all four of our messages. We are going to be doing that in just a few moments. This song includes our Need for the Cross, it includes God’s Work on the Cross, it includes Our Response to the Cross as we ponder that truth.
The song we are going to be singing is a song that was written by Charles H. Gabriel Probably most of us don’t know Charles H. Gabriel. Charles Gabriel was born five years before the American Civil War. Charles Gabriel composed many songs. He was also known for editing multiple song books that were designed for children and students—he put songs in them that were easy to sing.
This song we are going to be singing at the close of all four of our services is a song that was very first sung in the early 1900’s. It was sung in the evangelistic crusades that went on, largely in the United States, but also in some other places. One of those evangelistic crusades where this song was sung was led by a famous evangelist called Billy Sunday. The song we are going to sing as we close all four of our sessions is known by different titles. It is known by I Stand Amazed. It is sometimes known by How Marvelous, but its original title was My Savior’s Love.
As we sing this song, I want us all to be reflecting on Our Need for the Cross. I want us all to be reflecting on the complications of our sin; the severe penalty that it brings us; that we cannot compensate for it, no matter what we try to do. As we sing this song, it is a tremendous insight into the true love story that was authored by your Creator and mine.
Let’s pray together. Father, we thank You so much for the cross. We thank You for the whole story that relates to the cross. We thank You, Father, for this time in which we can learn from Your Word. We pray for every heart that is here, that You would teach us; that You would open up our eyes to the reality of the Gospel message; that You would catalyze and energize our hearts to embrace Jesus Christ and to worship Jesus Christ. We pray these things in His name. Amen.
Song: ( we sang The Norton Hall Band version…faster paced)
I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene
And wonder how He could love me
A sinner condemned, unclean
How marvelous! How wonderful!
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous! How wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me
He took my sins and my sorrows
He made them His very own
He bore the burden to Calvary
And suffered, and died alone
How marvelous! How wonderful!
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous! How wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me
When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see
‘Twill be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me
Singin’
How marvelous! How wonderful!
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous! How wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me
Questions for Reflection
Unpacking the Gospel
‘Our Need for the Gospel’
1. As followers of Jesus, what contributes to us drifting at times into a complacent, lackadaisical attitude toward the cross?
2. Why is it that the ‘most significant truth in the universe’ (the gospel) is something that many people have never heard?
3. Why is it that others have heard or are aware of the term ‘the gospel,’ but they struggle to define what it means, why it is important, and how to embrace it?
4. What can we practically do to remedy the above situations?
5. Since God has set [planted] eternity in the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11) how should that truth practically influence our approach to people?
6. Bruce said:
Regular gratitude for the deep grace of the gospel is what:
– catalyzes a daily attitude of worship
– energizes our drive to serve God
– stimulates our desire to share the gospel with others
Spend some time in prayer thanking God for the truth of the gospel and ask him to catalyze, energize, and stimulate your heart during this preaching series.